Final Sail for April.

Managed to get a quick day sail in this week on Wednesday 23rd April. With no crew, the weather had to be pretty good to contemplate going out, and the forecast was favourable. The main concerns were coming back in to the creek in the dark, locating where the split ring I had found on the deck on the previous trip suddenly manifesting itself and generally falling overboard. The clevis pin where the split ring had come from was located as being the backstay! Nothing important then.

Leaving Notts at 0430am and driving through fog, I made it to the boat for about 0630am and after loading the new cushions on an a bit of grub, cast off around 07.30am in to quite decent weather. F2. SSW. Sunny. It was a slow drag up to Skeg. with a SSE-SW fluky wind, but once past Skeg. the wind picked up a little, though the visibility dropped to just over 500yrds. Ian (Challenge) motored past on the way up the coast. With no intention of going too far up the coast due to the likely drop in the wind I reached to and from Chapel Point and the yellow nav. mark off Ingoldmells Point. Having got bored of this I decided to anchor off the Pier at Skeg. and await for the favourable tide to set in. Anchoring in 7m of water the rain came and went and the tide turned after. Waiting til around 1700pm I weighed anchor and made course back in to Wainfleet Roads to anchor off the Creek. At 1900pm, it was a remarkably uneventful trip into the channel and a spot on return to the mooring. All packed up and driving off by 2015pm. Next trip out 5-7 May. Wells here we come!

Anyone want to Buy and MGF. 1999 VVC engine with private plate for £2995.00 give me a shout!

New Boat. Seawych

Just a quick note on the new ship. Almost an impulse buy this one. Obviously an ebay special. Luckily the gentleman who was selling it lived in Yorkshire. As the boat didn't ome with a trailer, I got it pretty cheap. A little project for the Spring. http://www.seawych.org/ Piccies on the Piccasa link.

First sail if the year.

Well it's the first trip of the season on Aretia. We launched Aretia at the beginning of March in all those Gales, which made things interesting when trying to adjust the mooring at 06.00am in the morning! She went in like a dream, on the evening tide, and dropped her into her berth. we decided to stay overnight in the sailing club, to check her over in the morning. The wind came in over night, and so did the Police Alsatian. 4am to be precise. The wind had blown the front door open of the sailing club, and a Copper passing had decided to check it out. Not before sending K9 in. You can imagine, me not being to keen on the seeing Fido having been rudely awoken by the site of a growling hound. Now I was wide awake I decided to shut the door and put plenty of weights behind it.

On inspecting Aretia at first light she was well over on her side with the tide out. The wind was howling, so I had to get aboard and adjust the lines. All went well so it was off for the traditional Tesco breakfast in Skeggy.

April 6th saw the first trip out of the year. The original plan was to go up to Tetney in the Humber and the Humbermouth Yacht Club, staying overnight and then heading back to Gib. Point the following day. However the weather forecast wasn't the best according to the shipping forecast. F8-F9! I must thank Peter Sheldrick from HMYC for his assistance in providing great details of the entry and mooring plans for getting into the Haven.

So it was decided to go on a day sail on the Tuesday up the coast. The weather forecast was for F3-F4 with wintry showers and that was what we got! Up early, the boat was still covered in frost, Rob my crew was struggling to stay n the deck as we headed out of the Channel, which I have to say was really well marked after all the work gone in by the club members over the Winter. I didn't even have the usual twitchy nerve, as I approached the outer sand bar!

It was then up the coast in sunshine, using the new toy- Chart Plotter. Brilliant bit of kit, sure to keep the kids entertained.

With the Wind sticking steady around F2-F3 off the coast, we launched the Genneker, to enable us to reach up towards Mablethorpe pas the new Windfarm.

Later in the day the Wintry showers appeared, two full on hailstorms.

We even developed a couple of snowdrifts in the cockpit. Having put up with this is was back down Wainfleet Roads prior to anchoring off the entrance to the channel in 1.5m of water. 60mins later this was 8m of water with the tidal stream flowing at 3.5knots. Back in to the channel and on to the mooring. A successful first day sailing.

Quick Update.

It's been a while and not much has happened with Aretia. I'm halfway through stripping the Keel Winch which has had a need centre welded in as the last one has turned in to a cloud of rust. The keel wire will then be replaced, after which the keel will be dropped to inspect the keel bolt. All wood work hhas be taken off for sanding and varnishing, along with the rudder. It looks like Aretia is going bakc to Skeggy next year, though we were looking at maybe putting in a marina on the Humber. Access is still an issue though! Went to the Earls Court Boat show last weekend, very good, better in my opinion than the Excel show, with a much friendlier atmosphere, though maybe not so many people. All for now.

Sailing on the River Witham and the River Trent.

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Aretia is back on Freshwater.

With the fine weather window we had over the bank holiday, it was a good time to start the trip back to Nottingham. With a good forecast, spring tides, and just enough daylight it seemed like a good idea to take the Jaguar 22 into the Wash and to in to the port of Boston. For once, my god for once, the plan actually worked.!

The overall plan is to take Aretia from Boston up the River Witham to Lincoln then on to the Fossdyke Navigation before finally joining the Salty section of the River Trent before heading to Nottingham. At Nottingham Aretia will be dragged out and taken by road to Langar Marina.

From Wainfleet Ditch to Boston is approximately 10 miles. A 3 hour trip along Boston Deeps and then anchor off Tabs Head in Clay Hole. The trip covered the full length of the Wash from the Steeping River to the Witham.

So on Bank Holiday Monday it was an early rise 0400am to get out by 0530am. We weren't the only ones. Pride was making a journey to Grimsby and FV Challenge was on it's way to do some surveying off the Bombing Range at Friskney.

The weather forecast was for F3-4 NW dropping. Obviously we hit F4-F5 SW. But hey localised must have been conditions. We headed out over the channel after being overtaken by Challenge and waved off by Sammy the Seal. Pride followed us as we headed in to the wash on their way to the Parlour Channel. We were on a tight reach touching 5knts and having to reef down the Genny, with much more and the main would have had to been reefed. John helmed most of the leg whilst I concentrated on the charts and working out which navigation marks were actually missing (plenty). One thing it was, was bloody cold. almost like an October morning rather than August Bank Holiday. After an hour the sun started to come through and we could make out Boston Stump.

With John at the helm as he doesn't like popping below decks 'sea sickness and all that' time was made for breakfast and a cup of sludge.

Following the navigation marks made the pilotage pretty easy. Past the Freeman Channel there were several other boats coming out of Boston. A couple of sailing and also a few motor cruisers, including Antigua whom we moored against over in Wells.

After coming in to Clay hole we dropped the 'pick' in 7m of water and settled in for 6hours. The whole Boston fishing fleet seem to bomb past plus also another 10 boats coming out from the Witham.

After a cooked breakfast, a spot of fishing, a beer, read of the paper and a little sunburn it was time to drop the mast. This all went pretty well and eventually we got this strapped to the boat. I wouldn't fancy doing this in much more wind.

The entrance to the Witham is all fairly straight forward, the only thing to catch you out getting to the first 'pen' at Grand Sluice Lock. Basically 3 hours before HW you can make your way over the bar at the entrance to Tabs Head. Tabs Head basically splits the Witham from the Welland and the tide as you can imagine does like to push you a little closer than you may wish. After that it's all deep water. Big container ships, but deep water. You then have an hour to get to the sluice prior to the lock closing over HW for 4 hours or more. Obviously we just scraped in literally by the skin of our teeth. The lock gates were closing as we were going through.

After mooring up in Boston it was off home. Returning in a couple of weeks to make our way up the Witham.